Wanna start some plants??

[dunnman39]

I would like to add some live plants to my 10 gal community tank but I know nothing on how to keep them alive. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[sinibotia]

Do you know what light you have? And what substrate?

 

[dunnman39]

I am not sure on the light when I bought the tank it already had the lighting hood. Substrate is gravel

 

[sinibotia]

Is it incandescent, fluorescent or LED?

 

[dunnman39]

I believe incandescent. Will i need to buy a bew bulb?

 

[sinibotia]

You'll likely need to buy a new hood, I don't think incandescent bulbs are any good for plants

 

[dunnman39]

Okay no problem. After I get the hood what steps will I need to take then?

 

[sinibotia]

Well you want to figure out what kind of new light you want- fluorescent or LED

 

[The_Desacrator]

From what I have seen the industry has been pushing toward LEDS so that may be a better option

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[Fresh2o]

You can use the narrow spiral shaped compact fluorescent bulbs in incandescent fixtures. Be sure to get the 6700k spectrum and (again) narrow type. The traditional CFL might be too wide for the fixture.


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[Exigenn]

use these bulbs for incandescent fixtures Lights Of America 10 Watt Mini Fluorescent Aquarium Bulb, 1ct - Walmart.com This is what im using and i love them.

 

[sinibotia]

I'm curious, how strong light is it from those bulbs for a 10 gallon?

 

[Exigenn]

I have ordered these several times now, one came in broke and then i needed more. The bulb you actually receive is different from the one pictured.

 

[sinibotia]

I mean parr-wise though

 

[Exigenn]

I have no clue, how do you tell lol.

 

[sinibotia]

You need a meter or a reference lol

 

[Exigenn]

Well i have no clue then lmao, But my plants do grow much better and the tank is much brighter if that helps lol.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Plants can be a bit tricky.

First of all, you need enough light for the plants to grow, and different plants need different light levels. Then you also have to plan on a time period for the lights to be on. And if the tank gets too much light, you can start having issues with alge growing faster than the plants.

If you want to start "playing" with plants, simply replace your existing incandescent light bulbs with CFL light bulbs. You want bulbs with a high color temperature (Daylight with color temperatures around 5000K to 6500K, NOT Softwhite or Coolwhite with color temperatures around 2700K to 2500K). Start with a CFL of equal comparable wattage, as time goes, you may find you need to try a higher or lower wattage bulb and you might need it on for longer or shorter time periods each day.

Get a timer so the lights will go on/off automatically, unless you can be religious about turning the lights on/off. (That's one of the thing I hate about these day/time night/time (moon light) light sets, you can't plug them into a standard timer and get your daytime/nighttime light switch over).